


In the Citadel of Susa, II

by Daegaer



Series: In the Citadel of Susa [2]
Category: Ancient Persia, Jewish Scripture & Legend, Megillat Ester | Book of Esther, תנ"ך | Tanakh
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Eunuchs, Gen, Kings and Queens, Persia, Persian Empire, Queens, courtiers, palace plots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-13 11:17:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3379547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Imprisoned and forgotten, Vashti discovers she still has a friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Citadel of Susa, II

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LaDonnaErrante](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaDonnaErrante/gifts).



> Thank you to my beta-reader, Puddingcat!

In the days of Artaxerxes son of Darius, a decree went out across all the lands from India to Ethiopia, that virgin girls of good family and beautiful appearance should be brought to Susa, so that Hegai the chamberlain of the palace harem could take them in charge. By this the great men of the world knew that the King looked for a new queen, for if he wished simply for a woman to warm his bed he need not stipulate that she be virgin and high born. From all the lands under the King of Kings' rule, fathers and men of noble birth with girls under their care put them on the road to Susa, seeing the chance to become the kinsman of the current king, and the grandfather of the next. The girls themselves they terrorized, telling them every step of the way of the obedience that must be shown to Artaxerxes, no matter what he demanded of them, no matter how frightened or disgusted they felt, for they would do their families a great service in the King's bed. The fate of Vashti-Stateira was held up as a caution against failure, for had the King not had her strangled by her own eunuchs for insolence? Or, they said, perhaps it had been the King's mother, Parysatis, who had poisoned her unnaturally stubborn daughter-in-law. At this, the girls quivered and wept, and promised that they would never refuse the King anything.

 

In the dusty back rooms of the women's quarters, that had once been used for storing ancient furniture from the days of the kings of Ashur, and were now deemed fit for a prison for a queen fallen from grace, Vashti sat in silence, veiled and clothed as a widow. It had been many months since she had been brought to the small, dirty rooms and told to wait for the King's decision on her fate, and some days she almost dared to hope that she was forgotten, a thing of no more than hazy memory or legend.

She was attended by sour-faced women she had never seen before she had entered the forgotten rooms, and two ancient, doddering eunuchs who had surely been discovered in some cupboard of the palace, untouched since the reign of a long-dead king. These servants brought her food every morning, and, on the days when they refused to taste it before she ate, she went hungry until the next morning.

She was astonished to find herself not entirely forgotten on the day that the heavy doors opened and the eunuch who had been her chief of servants came in, his nose briefly wrinkled at the smell of dust and decay. Hegai stood before her, giving the polite impression that he did not see the state in which she was kept, and bowed deeply. She could not expect more, she thought. She was no longer a queen, and the floor was very dusty.

"May you have health and long life," Hegai said. "I am so sorry my duties have kept me from visiting you, Lady Vashti."

"I'm glad to see you," she said, wondering if he had been sent to torment her, or to perhaps bring her poison. "I know you have little time to spare from your duties."

He smiled pleasantly. "My lady, if I might speak to your servants?" Without much waiting for her nod he directed his gaze, now turned fierce, upon the maids. "You! Why do you sit in your lady's presence? Has she invited you to do so? Get up and clean these rooms, they're disgraceful. One couldn't lodge a Spartan in here, let alone expect a lady of high birth to live here. And you two –" The eunuchs took a step back. "Stand up straight and – were you _scratching_ yourself? By God, this is Susa, not Sogdia! All of you, get out; come back with cool sherbet for the lady to drink when you've made yourselves more presentable. And bear in mind you will _all_ be taking a sip of it."

He watched them withdraw, and turned to her with satisfaction. "Much better, Greatest of Ladies," he said, and heedless of the dust, went down in the full prostration.

" _Hegai_ ," Vashti said, her eyes filling with tears. She wiped them away with her widow's veil. "Please, sit with me."

He rose, and fetched a seat, inspecting it dubiously before dusting it off with his hand. "It's been a long time since I had to dust anything myself," he said lightly. "Madam, I have news, and –" he took a breath. "Madam, I don't bring good news. The King has been prevailed upon to take a new queen. There. It needed to be said quickly."

Vashti closed her eyes and nodded. She had hoped – Artaxerxes had never stayed angry for long, not with anyone, and when she had not been killed, not even for publicly insulting him a small thread of hope had blossomed in her heart that he would forgive her. How foolish she had been. 

"In this world a woman lives only by the whim of men," she said, thinking she should be more attentive to her prayers, "and men are fickle." She sighed, and asked, "My children?" 

"They are well, Madam, I swear it. I must be quick, before those spying maidservants come back: they are the creatures of the King's mother. He wished to pardon you, but the great men of the royal council – the very ones who advised him to banish you lest all the women of Persia rise up and mock their husbands –"

Vashti laughed bitterly.

" – well, I'm sure that many lesser husbands could stand being mocked now and then, my lady. _I_ know you were moved only by shock at the evil of those who stand around the King, but they have his ear, and they still do. They have suggested that his loneliness will be assuaged by marrying a new and more compliant woman. It's no coincidence that every man on the council has a daughter or niece of marriageable age."

"And so he – or this new queen – will kill me," Vashti said.

"Oh, Madam," Hegai said in deep sorrow. "Yes. It seems probable. He has already spoken of settling the crown on the adopted daughter of one of the courtiers, a Babylonian whom I know reasonably well. For a courtier and a Babylonian, he's an honest man, and his daughter is a well-brought-up, beautiful girl. I'm sorry to have to tell you that I like her."

"At least I'll be killed by someone nice," Vashti said, trying to laugh. Her moment of defiance had long since deserted her, and the knowledge that the new queen would brook no rival was a cold weight upon her. "What's her name?"

"Ishtar-is-Compassionate," Hegai said, lifting one shoulder slightly as if to say, _Babylonians!_

"A pagan as the queen of Persia," Vashti said. "Well, who can gainsay the King of Kings?" 

"Oh, no. Marduk-Lives – that's her father - told me once; their family's from a province in the satrapy of Across-The-River where they actually worship God. At least I think that's what he meant, I suppose King Cambyses in ancient days must have brought the worship of the Wise Spirit to the region. But none of that matters," he leant forward conspiratorially. "The girl trusts me, and her father is at least well-disposed to me – and is outside the palace, with people who could hide a person seeking refuge. His daughter looks to me to give her advice, and she takes it, every last bit. I am going to tell her to save you." 

Vashti felt her mouth fall open. "It will be discovered," she said at last. "You'll be killed."

Hegai shrugged. "Are not palace eunuchs famed for how we plot and plan? Perhaps I wish to be a plotter." He looked at her, more straightforwardly than she was used to persons of low estate regarding her. "Men may indeed be fickle, but I have been told all my life I am no man. You will find me true, _Your Majesty_." 

"I am in your debt," she said, astonished.

"Never, Madam," he said, and sat back as the doors opened, and the maids and eunuchs came in, faces and hands washed, clean cloths draped over their arms, carrying cups of sherbet and bowls of dates and sweets. "And here are the refreshments," he said, cheerfully, "which we shall all share and so live or die together. My dear young women, please, do partake first."

Vashti watched her maids sulkily sip at the drinks and lifted her head, feeling the clouds lift for the first time in months.

* * * * * * * * * *

Source: [Queen Vashti Deposed](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Normand,_Ernest_-_Queen_Vashti_deposed_-_1890.jpg), by Ernest Normand

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the reason that Esther can conceal her heritage from everyone in the palace is because she - like her relative and adoptive father Mordecai - has a good, Babylonian name with an Akkadian-language divine element in it. I combined it and her Hebrew name to come up with the name Hegai reports to Vashti. 
> 
> Judah - the province of Yehud - was in the administrative area of the satrapy of Beyond-The-River (i.e., west of the Euphrates), a far-off land seen from the point of view of people in Susa. Cambyses was the second king of Persia.
> 
> Hegai's crack about Spartans isn't based solely on previous generations' experience such as King Xerxes' armies fighting at Thermopylae, but also on the fact that Artaxerxes' younger brother attempted to take the throne in a coup, using Greek mercenaries, with a Spartan general. Persia has had, at this time, recent experience of the havoc caused by Greeks looking for a fight.


End file.
